Identification of Mahayana Sculptures fromI Padidora, Mawanella

Abstract

Ten gilt-bronze sculptures, some of which were supposed to be representing Mahayana deities, discovered from Padidora. Mawanella in the district of Kegallc in the year 2006 were studied, The objective of the study is to re-examine and re-define the iconographical attributes of the findings. Those sculptures were previously identified by a team of archaeologists from the Department of Archaeology as representing Avalokithesvara Natha, the most popular deity in Mahayana Buddhism. The present study is based on canonical and literary references from Silpa Texts, SadhanaMala and Nispannayogavali and others, I was able to identify five statues as representing Samadhi Buddha, one Maitreya Bodhisattva, one Sudhana Kumara and two Tara of which the last four representing the most popular deities of the Mahayana pantheon of Sri Lanka